


The Octonauts & the Auk

by okapi



Category: The Octonauts (Cartoon)
Genre: Auks, Gen, Penguins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-12-25 23:03:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18270926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okapi/pseuds/okapi
Summary: A black-and-white bird is bandaging injured sea creatures, but it isn't Peso.For the DW Ficlets Collection, prompt 014: wanderer. And DW 100 Fandom prompt .068: swim.





	The Octonauts & the Auk

The Octoalert sounded throughout the Octopod.

_“Octonauts, to your stations!”_

Tweak arrived at her station first.

“Captain, what’s up?” she asked.

“Hello, Tweak,” said Captain Barnacles. “I have just received a report of many sea creatures being hurt by a ship’s propeller in the B-3 square of,” he indicated a flashing point on the screen, “northern quadrant. I need Peso and Kwazii to take the Gupa-X and respond at once.”

One of Tweak’s rabbit ears drooped. She frowned. “But, Captain…”

“It’s very important,” said Barnacles quickly.

“Aye, aye, Captain,” said Kwazii, arriving at his station. “But what Tweak’s trying to say is that Peso and Shellington aren’t here. And neither is the Gup-X. Peso and Shellington took the Gup-X to collect samples in the eastern quadrant.”

Captain Barnacles slapped his paw to his head. “Oh, my goodness! I completely forgot! Well, I will have to radio the Gup-X and tell Peso and Shellington to put their activities on hold and travel directly to the site of the accident. It may take them a bit longer to reach it, but we need to respond as soon as possible.”

“Should we go ourselves, Captain?” suggested Kwazii. “If there are a lot of injuries, then Peso and Shellington might need a paw—or four!”

“Great idea, Kwazii,” said Captain Barnacles. “And we may get there before the Gupa-X. Tweak, get the Gup-A ready for launch.”

“Aye, aye, Captain!”

* * *

As they approached the site of the accident, Kwazii peered out of the Gup-A’s porthole and said, “It's mad, Captain, but I think Peso and Shellington beat us here! Look!”

Captain Barnacles nodded. “The fish and eels and octopi are leaving the site of the accident, and all of them are bandaged.”

“But I don’t see the Gup-X anywhere,” said Kwazii.

“Maybe they’ve already left?”

“But surely, we would’ve seen them, too!”

Just then, the Gupa-A’s communicator crackled, and Peso’s voice sounded.

“We’ll be there in ten minutes, Captain!”

Kwazii and Barnacles stared at each other with brows furrowed.

“Well, this is a mystery. Let’s investigate,” said Barnacles. They activated their diving helmets, then dropped through the Gupa-A’s exit hatch.

“Excuse me,” said Barnacles at a passing eel with a bandage around its middle, “but who applied that bandage?”

“ _Pingouin_ ,” replied the eel tersely, then it wiggled on its way.

“Oh, Captain!” cried Kwazii. “Do you think there’s another Peso? Or someone pretending to be Peso?”

“I don’t know,” said Barnacles. “Our best course of action is to follow the trail of bandaged sea creatures to its source.”

“There, Captain!” said Kwazii, swimming quickly toward a shallow cave in the side of a cliff. The cave was half in and half out of the water. Barnacles followed, and when the two reached the mouth of the cave, they gasped.

“That bird looks a lot like Peso, Captain,” said Kwazii. “And it’s got a medic bag just like Peso. And it’s bandaging animals just like Peso. But it’s not Peso! Oye, who and what are you?”

A black-and-white bird was busy pressing a bandage to a seal’s flipper. When the seal barked a ‘thank you’ and swam off, the bird turned towards Barnacles and Kwazii and said,

“Bonjour, my name is Franc. And I am an auk.”

“An auk?” echoed Kwazii. “What’s an auk?”

Just then, a panting voice spoke behind them, “We made it! Oh, Doctor Franc, I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Bonjour, Doctor Peso. _Ne vous inquiétez pas._ Everything is under control.”

Kwazii laughed and looked from one black-and-white bird to the other. “Peso, for a minute, I thought this was you!”

Peso smiled and shook his head. “Franc is an auk. But in his language, French, the word ‘auk’ is ‘ _pingouin_ ’ and the word ‘penguin’ is ‘ _manchot_.’”

Kwazii scratched his head. “That hurts me pirate noggin.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Doctor Franc,” said Captain Barnacles.

“ _Vous aussi_ ,” said Franc, shaking the polar bear’s paw.

“Thank you very much for helping all these injured creatures,” added Barnacles.

“It was my pleasure to be of assistance, Captain. And, yes, Monsieur Kwazii, I am black-and-white bird, like Peso. And I can swim, like Person. And I am a medic, like Peso. But I am, by my nature, a wanderer, _un médecin sans frontiers_ , a doctor without borders. Also, I only roam the northern oceans, and Peso, if he weren’t an Octonaut, would only be found in the southern oceans. Under normal conditions, we wouldn’t meet at all.”

Franc packed up his medic’s bag and strapped it to his back.

“There’s one more difference,” said Peso with a wink. “All done here?”

“ _Oui_ ,” said Franc as he waddled to the entrance of the cave. Then he began to flap his wings.

“ _Jusqu'à la prochaine_ , Peso!”

“Adios, Franc!” called Peso as the auk took to the skies.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
